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Geospatial Farm Fertilizer Analysis

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Start year

2014

End year

2015

IFDC (International Fertilizer Development Center), in collaboration with VFRC (Virtual Fertilizer Research Center), is carrying out on-farm trials in Rwanda and Burundi to determine what nutrient fertilizer combination gives best yield results.

Now IFDC, through VFRC, plans to systematically align its activities regarding farm field and agro-ecological data collection and storage, science-based static geo-spatial statistical analyses and time bound dynamic production ecological modelling and dissemination of the products, coined the “Fertilizer Tech5”. The ultimate aim of this endeavor is to derive more accurate and regionally specified fertilizer recommendations to arrive at targeted yield improvements based on actual farm data through the bottom–up static geo-spatial statistical analyses. This approach systematically guides to determine the type of data that is needed and how these data should be collected and analyzed. By pursuing this approach and developing it for the case of Rwanda and likely Burundi the foundation will be constructed for future expanding to larger databases and regions. With that, the geo-spatial-temporal fertilizer recommendations about Integrated Soil Fertility Management for sustainable farm production systems will be continuously improved.

This project aimed to set-up a pilot case study to develop an analytical Fertilizer_Tech5 system for the activities of IFDC related to data collection, database development, (geo)statistical processing and dissemination of the farm field and soil data. Twelve maps of soil fertility indicators were developed for Rwanda and Burundi, as well as a prototype relational database that stores data from nutrient trials from Burundi. Statistical analyses of trial data were carried out to investigate if there were relationships between crop response and biophysical indicators.